Title
Assessing precipitation extremes (1981–2018) and deep convective activity (2002–2018) in the Amazon region with CHIRPS and AMSU data
Date Issued
01 August 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Funatsu B.M.
Le Roux R.
Arvor D.
Claud C.
Ronchail J.
Michot V.
Dubreuil V.
Publisher(s)
Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Abstract
The frequency and spatial distributions of precipitation extremes (PEs) and deep convective clouds (DCC) across the Amazon region were assessed using satellite-derived data. For PEs, CHIRPS dataset for the period 1981–2018 were used to calculate a set of absolute, threshold, duration, and percentile-based threshold indices defined by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices. DCC occurrence was assessed based on the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit data for the period 2002–2018. In northern Amazon (north of 5 ∘S) PEs and DCC are more frequent (≥ 60 % frequency) during February–June. Averaged trends over these months have shown increase in daily rainfall above 20 mm of near 3 days over the 1981–2018 period, and an increase of 2 consecutive wet days (P ≥1mm) in the same period. South of 5 ∘S prevalence of PEs and DCC is largely observed during November–March (≥ 60 % frequency), whereas the longest persistence of dry days is observed during June–August. Though all PE trends point to an intensification of rainfall in November–March, only consecutive dry days in winter (JJA) and spring (SON) show significant trends, pointing to an increase of 7 days over the 38-yr winters. Rainfall extremes over the entire Amazon region were found to be moderate to strongly correlated with the mean vertically integrated moisture divergence, and in southern Amazon also to upper level divergence and upward vertical velocity. Increased frequency of DCC were found over the whole basin (∼18%yr-1), in contrast to decreased convective overshooting (up to ∼15.4%yr-1).
Start page
827
End page
849
Volume
57
Issue
April 3
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Investigación climática
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85103656306
Source
Climate Dynamics
ISSN of the container
09307575
Sponsor(s)
International Emerging Action. Horizon 2020 Framework Programme - 691053. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - ANR-18-MPGA-0008. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus